Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury was born August 22nd 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He was the third son born to Leonard and Esther Bradbury. At age six his family moved to Tucson, Arizona. As a young boy Ray became highly intrigued in science fiction stories as well as horror flicks and magic acts. Ray began to develop his own stories by age eleven and at age twelve he had a life changing event.

Ray read a newspaper headline that read “World Would End Tomorrow.” This title sparked Ray’s curiosity and him and his brother camped outside along a cliff to watch this event take place. As the night progressed with no sign of the end in near, Ray became disappointed and him and his brother packed up and went home. Ray vowed to separate himself from religion as he felt discouraged, not understanding a god that would provoke his people into pseudo-terror.

Due to the depression, Ray’s father lost his job in 1932 and the family was forced to move to Los Angeles, California. By age fifteen Ray began sending his stories to national publications for print. Not having any luck with his stories Ray maintained his love and focus for his work.

At age eighteen Ray graduated from Los Angeles High School. Around this same time Ray started his own magazine called Futura Fantasia; however, this project only lasted four issues and consisted of only his work. After many attempts at getting his work published, Ray finally managed to get one of his stories published in Imagination! Magazine, an amateur magazine. The story was titled Hollerbochen’s Dilemma and this would mark a rather large accomplishment for Ray Bradbury. During this period of time Ray held a job selling newspapers on street corners in Los Angeles.

Bradbury got his first paid publication in 1941 with the ...

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...s Montag and he soon becomes part of their network of intellectuals. Their goal is to become helpful to mankind in the war that had recently been declared. Soon the city is obliterated by enemy jets and Montag and his new friends move on in search of survivors and a quest rebuild their city.

In this novel Bradbury seems to be inspired by the times he lived in, including the start of the cold war; however, I feel that Bradbury relied heavily on his imagination. Of course there was a lot of political unjust at the time Bradbury wrote this novel including racism, war, civil rights, etc. Bradbury seems to be a modern day visionary. Many of the details he wrote about in this novel have become modern day issues surrounding medias unquestionable grip on society. I enjoyed reading this novel and thought it brought about great central meaning. One quote I have taken to is: